The Principium Book
by gocharmix
Summary: Post season four, the Winx help Roxy settle in at Alfea and are called to face a new threat. Honestly, the only canon relationships getting much focus will probably Flora and Helia, with possibly some Tecna and Timmy stuff? (And past Nabu and Aisha sad stuff of course) Character development plans to demolish everything else.
1. Chapter 1

There was really no need for all six of them to escort Roxy to Alfea, but they'd gone anyway, for old time's sake. Roxy had protested, laughing, but all the same they all stepped through Stella's portal, one by one.

"Stella brought me here my first time too, you know," Bloom reminded Roxy, digging her elbow into the blond's side playfully. Stella squawked and swatted at her arm, but they both giggled at the memory.

Roxy's dark eyes examined the evergreens around them critically. "It doesn't look much different than earth." It was true that the stretch of forest they'd emerged in looked about as magical as a clod of dirt.

"It's not so much something you can see," Flora replied, draping her hand over the crook of Roxy's elbow and guiding her towards Alfea in the distance. "Can't you feel it? The air is different here." She shut her eyes and took a deep breath, smiling.

Roxy's mouth twisted as she scanned their surroundings, before shutting her eyes, an expression of doubt on her face. A few moments later her eyes popped open again. "I don't feel a thing."

Musa snorted at that, shaking her head and following them between the trees. "Don't listen to Flora, not everyone's got the sense like she has."

The group made their way through the forest, Stella wobbling over tree roots and mud patches in her heels as usual. Ahead of them, Alfea emerged from the treetops, the blue arches visible before the pink walls, and finally the wing-like gates coming into view. They could make out Griselda at her position, granting access to the long line of aspiring fairies. Bloom felt a rush of deja vu at the scene. There were some differences, however. On either side of the gate stood a uniformed guard, visors shut tight. She saw Musa exchange looks with Tecna, who shrugged.

When they reached the gate, Griselda paused in admitting students to look them up and down. "Back again?" she asked, a sneer curling at the corner of her mouth. She crossed her knife thin arms, waiting for an explanation. The next girl in line looked relieved, her questioning delayed for the moment.

"Couldn't stay away!" Stella replied breezily, rocking on her heels to peer over Griselda's shoulder and into the school.

Bloom knew how Stella set Griselda off, so she stepped in front of her, putting on a cheery smile. "Actually, we're bringing a new student. Roxy, I'm sure Ms. Faragonda's told you about her?" Flora's hand was still curled on the younger girl's arm, and Aisha moved to rest her elbow on Roxy's shoulder. The gesture was small, but the tension in the girl's spine relaxed just a bit as they waited for Griselda's verdict.

She could see that the harsh woman wanted to tell them there'd been a mistake, Roxy wasn't allowed. But at the last moment, she stepped aside to let them pass. "I hope she's better behaved than you all were," she grumbled as they hurried through the gates. Some of the poor freshmen still in line shouted at them indignantly as they cut in front, but they ignored it.

It took awhile to sort out Roxy's dorm situation. Tecna hacked into the housing database and got them the room number so they didn't have to go ask a teacher, but it was on the complete other side of campus and when they got there they found it had been remodeled since they were there and all the room numbers were totally different. Forty-five minutes later they finally staggered into the correct room. Stella swooned dramatically onto the carpet.

"What do you think?" Bloom asked, arms wide and gesturing to the room. The layout was different than the Winx's dorm had been. The main room was fundamentally the same, though set up in different colors, and the furnishing was a little sparser. There were only two doors however, instead of three. Investigating further revealed that both were double rooms, so it was missing the single that Stella had claimed as hers back in the day. One of the rooms was clearly already taken, boxes and bags covering both of the beds. The other had one bed unclaimed, with that side of the room completely empty. None of the roommates were there.

Roxy leaned over Bloom's shoulder, trying to see the interior. "It's smaller than my room back home," she griped, but she was smiling as she sat on the bed, bouncing up and down. "I guess I can understand why they wouldn't let me bring Artu..." that had been the hardest part for Roxy. She could text and call her dad all she wanted, but when she'd had to leave her beloved dog behind, the girls had all turned away and pretended not to see the tears that filled her eyes, though she bit her lip and tried to hide them.

Roxy was still looking around the room, and Tecna followed her inside, pulling her newest device from her pocket-whatever she was calling it now, Bloom couldn't remember. Instead of hauling all of Roxy's luggage through the forest, Tecna had devised a method where the bags were all digitized and saved in the memory of her gadget, and now her fingers danced across the keypad as she brought it back to reality, each appearing sketched in lime green lines first and then materializing with a pop.

"You got the window side," Musa was saying meanwhile, hopping over a duffel bag to look out at the view. The rest of the girls moved about the room, helping drag the bags to a better place and investigating the room further. Stella picked up a shirt that was lying across the roommate's bed and made an expression of disgust. Bloom watched them all, hands on hips and a fond smile on her face, before noticing that Roxy was still seated on the bed, shoulders rigid and a frown line between her eyebrows. Bloom joined her, asking softly under the noise of Stella and Musa bickering good naturedly, "What's wrong?"

Roxy hesitated, squeezing her hands into fists and pushing them against her knees. It was probably in her nature to deny that anything was wrong, but finally she replied. "I've never been close to anyone but you. The six of you, I mean. And I have to live with someone I don't even know now?"

"It'll be fine," Bloom replied, looping an arm around Roxy's shoulders. Roxy leaned against her, her head resting on Bloom's shoulder, and for a second Bloom couldn't breathe as she hoped desperately that she was right.

"I hadn't met any of these weirdos before rooming with them," Musa announced suddenly, her voice shattering the moment, and Roxy sat up and smiled at her hopefully. Bloom looked up to find that the side conversations had all ceased, and everyone was looking at them.

"That's right, and I was really, really nervous about it, just like you are," Flora added, coming to kneel in front of Roxy and taking her hands, a sweet smile on her face.

"And I'm the boss of being a loner," Aisha declared, grinning at her from across the room. "And nothing could break the bond I have with these girls now!"

Bloom was sure Roxy didn't notice it, but everyone went still for a moment. Even Tecna's fingers froze on the keys of her device.

Things weren't tense, exactly, but everyone had been dancing around the issue of Aisha's betrayal in the final battle. None of them had discussed it, with her or with each other. It was clear that some of them had forgiven her completely; Flora couldn't hold a grudge to save her life, for instance. Bloom hadn't figured out how she felt about it yet.

Tecna broke the tension finally, pressing one last button with a loud 'beep!'

"Professor Faragonda knows we're here," she informed them, eyes flickering from the screen to the rest of them. "She wants us to meet in her office as soon as possible."

That was familiar to them, and Bloom stood, disentangling herself from Roxy and clapping her hands together decisively. "Did you hear that, girls? Roxy, are you good here for now?"  
Roxy seemed to be cheered up from the pep talk, because she smiled and nodded. "I'll be fine. Thanks, guys."

Bloom offered her a smile before leading the rest of the group from the room. She hoped whatever Faragonda had to say wasn't too worrying.

When they entered her office, Faragonda stood with her back to them, looking out the window. Bloom wondered for a moment if she'd seen them come in, from her vantage point, or if she simply was able to sense who was in the school at that moment.

"I'm glad you came to bring Roxy here," she said finally, as they gathered in a half-circle in front of her desk. "It saves me the trouble of having to send for you."

"Professor, what is this about?" Aisha was the first to speak, agitated from the suspense. By all rights, they were past the age where they needed to worry about being in trouble with her. But they all still looked up to her and her serious tone was worrying.

"There's been a theft," she said finally, turning to face them at last. "Several, actually. I made an announcement to the students, but I thought I'd better tell you as well, considering your penchant for getting into trouble."

Stella scoffed, indignant, but Faragonda ignored her.

"Do you know what I'm referring to if I say 'the Principium Book'?" the older woman asked.

Flora made an 'ah!' noise, Musa nodded, and Tecna replied eagerly, "of course!" The rest of them stared at her blankly. Faragonda sighed. "Tecna, please enlighten your friends."

"Every population that inhabits one of the magical worlds has, to date, discovered a text or piece of writing that tells the story of that world as it occurs. Sometimes they're carvings on a wall, or books, or paintings. But every realm has one, and they're one of the greatest treasures of each of them. Collectively, the pages are referred to as the Principium Book." Tecna nodded, satisfied with her explanation.

Flora's expression was concerned. "Some of the Principium Pages are missing?" She covered her mouth with one hand, horrified.

With a grave nod, Faragonda replied, "Only two, so far. Sandus' went missing around a week ago, but we figured it was a fluke. It's an empty desert anyway, and no one lives there, so we weren't too worried. Then last night Soleil's went missing."

Stella blanched. "That's in my solar system!"

Faragonda nodded. "I know. Saladin's family is from there, and he's gone home to be with them."

"What's so bad about losing track of the record," Bloom asked curiously. "I mean, it's a tragedy of course, but is it really that bad?"

Musa was the one who answered her, her voice hushed. "If the Principium Page tells the story of the planet. If it's destroyed, the planet goes too. And everyone who lives there dies."


	2. Chapter 2

When they left Faragonda's office (but not after she offered to let them stay at Alfea if they needed it, which they'd gratefully accepted) the winx girls were quiet with contemplation. Flora was withdrawn and tense with worry, and Bloom could tell the wheels in Tecna's brain were already spinning a mile a minute. Musa was trying to rationalize.

"The Principium Page on my planet can't be stolen," she explained, frowning nonetheless. "It's a series of caves, not something mobile. The wind blows through and creates a song...the notes are the story of my realm." It was incredibly appropriate, for a music planet to have a history that was recorded in song.

Tecna's lips curved up in the proud smile she wore when she had something new to share. "Our Principium Page is fully digitized. There are thousands of millions of copies. There's no way they could all be deleted." She sounded smug, but deflated a little when she realized that though that meant she and her family were safe, it wouldn't keep the rest of her friends safe.

"Um..." There was a moment where they all looked around, trying to find out where the sound was coming from, before they realized it was Flora, her voice barely more than a whisper. She was staring at the ground, biting her lip, and when she spoke it was with great care. "I'm going to use the phone." She left the small group and turned the corner. Bloom stared after her with confusion.

"What's up with her?" Stella asked, frowning. Flora was more attuned to most things than the rest of them, so it made sense that something like this would affect her the most, but even that was a bit of an overreaction.

Bloom opened her mouth to say she didn't know, when it clicked. "Saladin's family," she repeated with a gasp. "She's worried about Helia."

The revelation sent a murmur through their group. One of their friends was in danger, and now the threat was real as day.

No one much felt like talking after that, and they headed back to the rooms Faragonda had said they could stay in. Out of habit Musa and Tecna claimed one for themselves, and the remaining three could hear the soft murmur of Flora's voice coming from behind one of the other doors. The three of them piled into the last room, Stella flopping down onto the one of the beds with a sigh. Aisha kicked off her shoes and sat on the other bed, pulling her knees up to her chest and staring off into the distance, her gaze all but melting a hole in the wall between them and their friends. With nowhere else to sit, Bloom perched backwards on the desk chair, crossing her arms over the back and resting her chin on them.

"Bet you three milkshakes we're going to toe to toe with the thieves any day now," Stella said suddenly, her bright voice slicing through the silence.

"Huh?" Bloom managed, brought back to reality. Aisha didn't even move.

"We always end up fighting the baddies, right?" Stella shrugged, feeling her logic was flawless. "We'll beat 'em up. Save the world. No biggie, right?" Her voice was full of forced cheerfulness. Bloom hoped she was right. But how were they going to find them? Faragonda had said that nobody had any idea who the perpetrators were, or what their motives could be. Sandus and Soleil weren't connected in any way, and nothing had been done with Sandus' Book so far anyway. She hoped the same would be true for Soleil.

A tinny pop ballad rang through the room, surprising them all. Stella made a face. "It's my dad," she explained, fishing out her cellphone and tapping the screen. She held it up to her ear and listened for a moment. "Hey, Daddy! Yeah, I heard. Hang on." With a sigh, she rolled off the bed and went out into the hallway to continue her phone conversation.

Bloom watched her go, bumping her chin against her crossed arms as she thought. She had no idea if earth even had a Principium Page. Even if it did, would it apply to her? Or would it be that of Domino? The rules of magic were tricky.

After a few minutes of contemplation, she realized Aisha was still curled up on the bed. Her brow was furrowed, her expression a mixture of frustration and worry. Bloom unfolded herself from the chair and moved to Stella's bed so she could see her friend better.

"Aisha?" she asked hesitantly.

The other girl cocked her head towards her to show she'd heard, but didn't respond or look away from the wall.

"Are you worried about the missing pages?" It seemed obvious that she would be, but Aisha had had a rough past few weeks.

Aisha ducked her head, pulling her eyes from the wall and looking down at the mattress. Her lips worked at each other, pressing together and almost forming words as she thought. Finally, she replied, "A little. Not as much as I should be." She paused, taking a deep breath, then added in a rush, "I'd understand. If you didn't want me on the team anymore, not after what I did."

Oh.

Bloom shook her head, laughing a little to hide the fact that she was panicking inside. Had Aisha been worried about that all this time? She couldn't deny that they'd all been a little awkward around her, but it wasn't like they were deliberately pulling away.

"We care about you! Nothing could change the fact that you're one of us." Even as she said it, she was making the decision for herself. So Aisha had switched sides. She'd been blinded by grief, and she'd felt that the Winx didn't understand. Bloom resolved to forgive her.

"Even if things are tough for awhile, you're always welcome with us."

It was as though Aisha could hear the difference in her tone after she decided. She finally looked at Bloom, her eyes widening in surprise. They stared at her for a moment before her mouth went firm, then smiled. "I guess I can't get rid of you that easily," she joked in relief.

"That's right!" Bloom felt the tension seep out of the room. No matter how the others felt, she was glad to have made her decision for herself.

The door opened halfway and Stella leaned in, her phone call over. "Am I interrupting anything?" she asked with a grin, already coming into the room. She stopped with a gasp when she took in Bloom's change of position. "That's my bed! I called it already."

She jumped onto the bed with her, trying to push her off. Bloom pushed back, and somehow it devolved into a full-on war where nothing was out of the question. Aisha cheered them on from the sidelines.

They'd fallen into a pile of bodies, giggling, when Musa poked her head in the door. "Yo, what are you guys doing? It sounds like you're hosting a preteen boyband concert in here." That only made them laugh harder, and she even snorted at her own joke, before beckoning to them. "Come on, Tecna thinks she's got something." With reluctance, they picked themselves up and brushed off their clothes. Stella fixed her hair, and then they were heading next door.


	3. Chapter 3

Musa lead the lot of them into the room that she and Tecna had claimed for themselves. It looked like they'd barely unpacked; Musa's shoes and jacket were on the floor, and there were a collection of charge cords clustered around the outlet, but other than that it seemed they'd both spent the last half or so doing other things. Tecna was sitting on one of the beds, squinting at her pda-type thing. She looked up when they came in, a frown tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"Something's wrong," she said, frustrated. "The...the network for my planet. Something's wrong with it, I can't get in touch with my family." She sounded more grumpy than frightened, but Bloom understood that a minor issue like this was terrifying in light of what they'd just learned.

"Maybe someone spilled coffee on their keyboard," Stella suggested.

Tecna shook her head. "Something like that wouldn't affect it. It's like..." she sighed, spreading her palms as she tried to explain. "When I said our Principium book was stored on a digitized network, that was a gross oversimplification. The truth is, it is the network. The internet and storage substitute that my planet uses was discovered way back when, and it shaped the way we function as a people." She paused, unable to be sure if they were getting all of this. "If it's not functioning properly with my devices, there's either something wrong on my end or there's something _very _wrong on the other end."

Her voice pitched at the end of her sentence, and Bloom realized for the first time how incredibly worried she must be. As levelheaded as Tecna strove to be, they'd all been friends for so long that they knew the clues when she was faking it.

Bloom was still trying to figure out what they should do when Musa stepped forward, sweeping her eyes around the room and stopping on her.

"I think we should go check it out," Musa declared, in a tone of voice that dared the others to defy her. It seemed she'd already decided this on her way to get them, and now she was just waiting for them to decide if they were joining her.

Tecna glanced at her in surprise. "Statistically speaking, it's probably nothing, but it'd put my mind at ease to make sure," she confessed. Musa nodded and grinned at her, then shot the others a challenging look.

"I wouldn't mind," Flora was the first to speak, pressing her fingers together and smiling sweetly. It was like her agreement had opened the floodgates, because Aisha was nodding and Stella was squealing 'field trip!'.

"Get everything you need, then," Bloom told them all. "We'll meet back here in ten minutes." She left the room to follow her own advice.

She didn't get far, however, because Roxy was waiting for her in the hallway.

"Having a secret meeting?" the younger girl asked, trying to peer past her and into the room. At home, she was a firecracker, a mousetrap waiting to be poked or prodded, but here she looked small and lonely in the dark hallway. Bloom resisted the urge to put an arm around her.

"Not secret, really," she protested instead, raising her hands defensively. "Something weird's happening on Tecna's homeworld so we're heading over to see what's up."

Roxy grinned with relief, pushing her hair back over her shoulder. "Oh, good! When do we leave?" She seemed eager as anything to get away from Alfea, even though she'd been here not even a day, and Bloom's heart ached for her.

"You can't come. School starts tomorrow." Saying it made Bloom feel like a parent, and she hated it. There was already so much between herself and Roxy, and emphasizing the age gap just made it worse.

Roxy reeled back like she'd been struck across the face, her eyes narrowing. "Yeah, so? You think Stella hasn't told me about all the things you guys used to get up to?"

It was true, of course. Bloom's memory flashed to her first night before classes. It had been her first time getting frozen solid, but unfortunately not her last. She squared her shoulders and shook her head. "That's different. Those were accidents, Roxy."

She'd seen Roxy in danger, fought alongside her, but leaving her somewhere safe like Alfea would be an enormous relief. Roxy didn't seem to think so. She was staring at her in betrayal, fury radiating through every fiber of her. Bloom was reminded of when they'd first known her, when they'd upended her life and she had hated them for it. No, better for Roxy to be somewhere secure.

"I guess if you really think I'm too much of a baby to come with you, I'll go back to my dorm," Roxy hissed, through gritted teeth, and then spun on her heel and stalked off down the corridor.

Stella and the others had gone to work gathering things they needed, so they'd caught only the tail end of the argument. The blonde was now leaning around the doorframe, and she made a face at Bloom when she caught her staring. "Major drama, huh?" she asked, shrugging. "She'll be over it by tomorrow. You coming?" She lifted her hand and wiggled her fingers, the light glinting off the ring on her finger. It was how they'd decided to teleport, since they didn't want to bother Faragonda in a time like this.

Bloom nodded, moving to join her in the doorway. In the space of a few minutes they were joined by the rest of the group, until the six of them were standing there, ready to go. Stella looked around at all of them, and then tossed her ring in the air, catching it as it descended in the form of her staff. "Ready?" she asked, twirling it once.

At her command, golden threads of magic knit together in mid air, spinning and widening to create a portal. They stepped through one by one, arriving on Zenith.

It was several moments before the light spots had faded from Bloom's vision enough for her to see properly. They stood on a platform that was suspended between tall buildings. The windows were dark- but no, on closer inspection they weren't windows at all but enormous video screens that were several stories high. They seemed to be off at the moment, however. The entire place was eerily quiet, actually. They were so high up, it was difficult to see the ground. Bloom looked around, trying to see any sign of life. It just seemed to be them in a sea of dark-screened skyscrapers.

As she turned, searching, her gaze settled on Tecna. The short-haired girl had gone white, all color gone from her skin. Her eyes were wide and staring, and she rushed to the edge of the platform, clinging to the railing and leaning over to look down. She didn't seem to find what she was looking for, because she spun to face them, turning her terrified eyes on them.

"Everything's _off,_" she whispered, horrified.


End file.
